David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 209
November 4, 2014
Farewell Galway Kinnell
When I was first beginning to seriously contemplate a life of poetry writing and living in Ann Arbor, I hear Galway Kinnell read at en event held by the University of Michigan. I went down the street to the Centicore Bookstore (also RIP) and bought what they had available.
How he influenced me is hard for me to describe. Style, yes a bit. Subject, yes his revelations of the holy in flesh and life and what some would call profane. I mourn his passing on and celebrate that he left so much behind in his poetry.
Here you can read some of his verse:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/kinnell/online.htm
More poems and some audios of him reading are here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/galway-kinnell#about
A first draft of an elegy for him is humbly offered here:
In Memoriam Galway Kinnell
The nameless bud of your heartstands in for all words of things—Every thing flowers blessed byyour voice, your hand upon it—Creased by your foreheadthat gives its flesh to knowto sing as St. Francis sang toand for the birds the beasts—even for a sow slopped spiritual—How you rooted with heruplifting aromas of world—How you climbed with Fergusand avenued with Christ—How you forked a Maple treeto sit watch on drifts of snow—How now we lie down to soilbroken in heart and bereftin our lush of fragile flesh—But left with your retellingand sanctified in your longand perfect loveliness of song
11/4/2014
How he influenced me is hard for me to describe. Style, yes a bit. Subject, yes his revelations of the holy in flesh and life and what some would call profane. I mourn his passing on and celebrate that he left so much behind in his poetry.
Here you can read some of his verse:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/kinnell/online.htm
More poems and some audios of him reading are here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/galway-kinnell#about
A first draft of an elegy for him is humbly offered here:
In Memoriam Galway Kinnell
The nameless bud of your heartstands in for all words of things—Every thing flowers blessed byyour voice, your hand upon it—Creased by your foreheadthat gives its flesh to knowto sing as St. Francis sang toand for the birds the beasts—even for a sow slopped spiritual—How you rooted with heruplifting aromas of world—How you climbed with Fergusand avenued with Christ—How you forked a Maple treeto sit watch on drifts of snow—How now we lie down to soilbroken in heart and bereftin our lush of fragile flesh—But left with your retellingand sanctified in your longand perfect loveliness of song
11/4/2014
November 3, 2014
My poem "Eden" is included in a free Kindle of the journal Literature Today.
My poem "Eden" is included in a free Kindle of the journal Literature Today.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P4HIW04
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P4HIW04
November 2, 2014
Photo from the Local Authors book fair at the Culpeper Library
Photo from the Local Authors book fair at the Culpeper Library on November 1, 2014
Appalachia - Poems by Charles Wright
Appalachia: Poems by Charles WrightMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Charles Wright is a spiritual poet who questions everything including his questions. He is a poet of nature who suspects that nature has a trick up her sleeve. Landscape and language interplay and he asks much of both, received much, but never enough.
In this collection, he reads from an imagined "Appalachian Book of the Dead" and takes us deep into wonder, and fear, and hope, and resignation, "Until there is nothing else" but silence.
View all my reviews
October 31, 2014
Join me and other local authors at the Culpeper Library Saturday Nov 1 at 2pm.
Join me and other local authors at the Culpeper Library Saturday Nov 1 at 2pm.
October 30, 2014
David Sam's Reviews: Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Allegiant by Veronica RothMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fit ending to this dystopian trilogy, written by Millennial author Veronica Roth. Supposedly aimed at a young adult audience, the Divergent novels may be read and appreciated by any reader.
Along with the Hunger Games trilogy, which was written by a late Baby Boomer, these novels suggest implications for how some young people may view the way they are used and manipulated by older generations currently in power. In both cases, youths are forced to choose among several warped and limiting options. And in both cases, the larger society uses them as fodder in socially dysfunctional entertainments or oppressive functions.
It may be too much to suggest parallels with the education traps we have created, the false hopes for careers and lives of meaning betrayed by decisions made by the elites and by history. On the other hand, it may not be a false analogy at all.
View all my reviews
October 26, 2014
My poem "Flowing Into The Adjacent Possible" has been accepted
My poem "Flowing Into The Adjacent Possible" has been accepted for publication in the winter issue of the Scapegoat Review.
